River
Chari River
1,400 km from source to mouth · Cameroon, Chad and Central African Republic.
Cameroon, Chad and Central African RepublicFlows into Lake Chad1st longest in Cameroon
In numbers
Length
1,400km
Average flow
1,200m³/s
Basin
650,000km²
Drop
324m
from 606 m to 282 m
Countries
3
The journey
From source to mouth
1,400 km of river and 10 stops on the way: 6 towns and cities on its banks, dams, bridges and the tributaries that feed it.
- 0 kmSourceat 606 m
- 461 kmBahr Aouk Rivertributary
- 535 kmSarh138,928 people
- 564 kmOuham Rivertributary
- 588 kmBahr Salamattributary
- 827 kmBousso16,732 people
- 980 kmGuelendeng23,320 people
- 1,156 kmKousséri139,024 people
- 1,157 kmLogone Rivertributary
- 1,158 kmN'Djamena1,359,526 people
- 1,301 kmBlangwa27,208 people
- 1,400 kmLake Chadat 282 m
Water level along the river (RiverATLAS; the height is exaggerated). Towns: GeoNames and Wikidata; bridges, dams and tributaries: Wikidata.
River in central Africa
At the mouth it carries 1,159 m³/s on average: an Olympic pool every 2.2 seconds. It drops from 606 m to 282 m, 0.2 m per kilometre on average. Its basin covers 650,000 km², about the size of AF. 11.6 million people live in it. Highest water: September; lowest: from January to April. No large dam holds it back: it is one of the world's free-flowing rivers.
Where to start
- N'DjamenaLargest city on its banks · 1,359,526 people
- N'Djamena International Airport (NDJ)Nearest airport with scheduled flights, 3 km from the cityCar hire at DLA airport (Douala)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- On the water19 ferry piers, marinas, boat rentals and boat ramps along the river (OpenStreetMap)
- From December to JanuaryThe best months to visit
Chari River, month by month
Highest water: September
Lowest water: from January to April. Best months to visit: from December to January.
From about 200 m³/s in the lowest month to 2,300 m³/s in the highest. An estimate: the monthly flow is modelled from the lowest and highest months of WaterGAP (RiverATLAS, 1971–2000) and the rain and snow along the river (WorldClim). Dams change the real rhythm. The chip is the average air temperature; below it, the month's rain.
Plan the trip
Plan the trip: boat trips, a bed by the river, a car
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The basin
Chari River: the basin in numbers
607,244 km² of land send their water to this river. This is what lives on it.
- 11.6millionpeople live in the basin
- 19/km²people per km²
- 552maverage altitude of the basin
- 946mmof rain a year (basin average)
- 26.2°Caverage air temperature
- 20%protected areas
- 0.1%covered by lakes
- 0.1km³held in reservoirs
What covers the basin
- 25% Forest
- 8% Cropland
- 40% Pasture
RiverATLAS (HydroATLAS v1.0, CC BY 4.0): land cover, people, protected areas, glaciers and dams over the whole basin upstream of the mouth.
Along the river
Chari River: what you find on the way
- 1Boat ramps
- 17Ferry piers
- 1Marinas
From OpenStreetMap, within 2.9 km of the river. Not mapped is not the same as not there.
From space
The source and the mouth, seen from orbit
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016), CC BY 4.0. The glowing line is the river as drawn by RiverATLAS.
Photos
Chari River in pictures
Tributaries
Where it flows, and what flows into it
NigeriaWhere these numbers come from
| Name, length, places | Wikidata (Q135477) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Course, profile, basin | RiverATLAS v1.0 (HydroATLAS, Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 — followed from the source to the mouth given by Wikidata |
| Flow | WaterGAP (RiverATLAS), 1971–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate along the river | WorldClim (RiverATLAS), 1970–2000 · CC BY 4.0 |
| Towns, bridges, dams | Wikidata · CC0; GeoNames · CC BY 4.0 |
| Along the river | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every source and licence is on the data sources page.
The family
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